Beaten Pirates Fan From YouTube Faces Cop In Court

A baseball fan whose arrest with a police baton and a Taser at a Pittsburgh Pirates game has been seen hundreds of thousands of times on YouTube was held for trial Wednesday on all charges against him.

Scott Ashley, 41, declined to comment after his preliminary hearing in Municipal Court. He is charged with harassment by physical contact or attempts or threats, public drunkenness, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

Channel 4 Action News' Amber Nicotra reported that Ashley now also faces a charge of disarming a law officer -- specifically, Detective Frank Rende, who testified that Ashley went toward him and reached for his gun at one point during the April 9 incident at PNC Park.

Rende said he was called to Ashley's section to remove the man from the ballpark. He testified that Ashley cursed at him and told him to move because he couldn't see the game, and when he asked Ashley if he wanted to do it the easy way or the hard way, Ashley responded, "I'm going the hard way, brother." He said he had to use a baton after a Taser failed to subdue Ashley.

Defense attorney Fred Rabner said the widely viewed YouTube video -- which was not played at Wednesday's hearing -- tells a much different story than the court testimony.

"The magistrate chose not to watch the videotape," Rabner said. "I felt that the videotape would have cleared up some issues, and we probably could have trimmed off some of the charges here today, but we'll deal with that later downtown."

The Fraternal Order of Police has said that the Pittsburgh police officers who arrested Ashley acted appropriately. Police Chief Nate Harper has neither supported nor criticized the officers' actions, saying only that the YouTube video would be reviewed against the department's use-of-force policy.

According to the criminal complaint, police said Ashley was being unruly, used foul language and refused to leave the park, at which point police became involved.

Ashley -- who spent three days in the Allegheny County Jail before someone anonymously posted his $5,000 bail -- claims there is much more to the story.

In an interview with WTAE last month, Ashley said the incident began when ballpark security was called for a group of rowdy young fans in his section who were drinking and making paper airplanes out of a free promotional poster. He said two guards stepped in his view of the game and wouldn't move after he made polite requests.

"They kind of looked at me and didn't say nothing, and then that's when I used an explicit word that I -- well, I got a little upset," said Ashley, who said he was asked to leave at that point.

"When I got to the bottom of the stairs, someone had met me, and I high-fived them, and that's when the other security guard stepped in between us, and that's when I had given him the shove," he said.

"At that point, I didn't have a chance to leave. I was being Tased immediately," Ashley said. "I was complying with them, I was leaving, and then after the elbow with the security guard, I was immediately Tased, and that's when the whole thing started."